Say what you like about Donald Trump, but he’s energetic for a man pushing 80. He does seem, very much unlike his senile, supine predecessor, in full control of his mind, and knows what that mind intends. His flurry of hundreds of executive orders – flying off the presidential desk – evinces a man on a mission, with a goal, what Aristotle term a ‘telos’, an end or purpose. To fulfill that, Trump has in good measure what Plato called thumos – spirit, the energy and courage to overcome obstacles, and not back down in the face of opposition.
We might also put this in terms of the virtue of industriousness, of which Pope John Paul II speaks in his encyclical on human labour, Laborem Exercens: The capacity to work, to stay on the task at hand, and see it through to the end.
Trump promised to do certain things, and those certain thing are getting done. By their fruits ye shall know them, and let’s look at some of those fruits.
- Taking the U.S. out of the World Health Organization which has done untold damage to the world. Other countries, including Italy, seem soon to follow suit.
- The one flag policy on government buildings. No more multi-coloured ideology flapping in the wind.
- Pardoned and ordered the release of the numerous pro-lifers, jailed for standing up for the unborn.
- The same with the protestors of that fateful January 6th. All of them political prisoners, denied due process, and many kept in solitary confinement.
- Has made illegal the surgical and hormonal mutilation of minors under the auspices of ‘transitioning’. Incalculable damage has already been done, but best to stop this Island of Dr. Moreau madness now.
- The use of ‘preferred pronouns’ now forbidden on any federal letters or documents. Hey, Bruce! Pete!
- Reinstated the Hyde Amendment, forbidding the of taxpayer funds for abortions.
- Cancelled Biden’s shipment of 50 million condoms to Gaza refugees. That would have been one way to reduce their numbers.
- Commenced the deportation of violent illegal immigrants back to their home countries to deal with them, and secured the southern border. A nation without secure borders is not a nation.
- Tariffs on Canada and Mexico, to stabilize perceived trade imbalances.
- The great purge of the ‘swamp’ in Washington, firing corrupt officials in the Army, FBI and other agencies.
- Reinstated military personnel, with full pay, unjustly fired for taking a stand against the mandate mRNA ‘vax’.
- Cancelled disastrous DEI initiatives across the land, which will hopefully ensure those truly competent will be hired, and not on the basis of some ideological criteria.
There’s lots more. Trump has signed at least 200 such executive orders. Perhaps not all of them are ideal, and one wonders if they will all produce the effect desired. Sometimes, things doth go too far and, in accord with Newton’s third law, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
But given the past years – decades – of inertia and malfeasance, this is a good – nay, a very good – start.
Meanwhile, we here in Canada have a paralyzed parliament, prorogued by a petulant boy-king, who has spent too much time preening and partying, the very antithesis of industry and thumos. He will soon likely be replaced by another Schwaub acolyte, an entitled incumbent who doesn’t even consider himself Canadian, in thrall to the WEF, WHO and ‘climate change’, compulsively obsessed with eliminating ‘carbon’, which is all he ever seems to talk about. He’s a mist, wandering in a fog.
Might Trump sign a 201st executive order, for the U.S. to accept sane Canadian refugees from ideological insanity?
Ah, well, we can dream. For those of locked in this cold, dark Narnian winter up north, it’s still pleasantly surreal to see reality so vividly imposed upon the fake world in which we have been forced to live for far too long. As Sheryl Collmer puts it in a recent article, it’s like we’re now living in Oz-like technicolour, in what was a dreary, drab grey. May some of that colour drift up here, Deo volente.
I might not put it so effusively as Mrs. Collmer, even if I do share in her hope for this world, the form of which is passing away. For Trump is but an instrument in that far bigger eschatological picture, as we move towards the fullness of time and the perfection God intended from the beginning. Only Christ can bring the full splendor of truth into this darkened world, but He uses whom He wills, in ways that are mysterious and wonderful. But we must cooperate with His work, so let’s get to it.